There are two games in the top 40 to be in their final week, God of War: Ascension (PS3) and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (PC). As a reminder the Pro data is back up, which means that I am taking requests again for games outside the top 20.

Seven games have 200,000 or more pre-orders, up from six last week, and the top 10 has 100,000 or more pre-orders, down from 12 last week. Three games added 20,000 or more, down from five last week and three added 10,000 or more, down from five last week.

Games in Final Week Before Launch

God of War Ascension (PS3) added 58,775 pre-orders for a grand total of 344,452. Expect first week sales in the USA at retail to be in the 500,000 to 600,000 unit range. Expect the game to sell between 1.6 million units and 2.0 million units lifetime in the US.

God of War III (PS3, 2010) – 692,257 week one USA, 2,448,460 to date

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (PC) added 20,340 pre-orders for a grand total of 276,741. Expect first week sales in the USA at retail to be in the 300,000 to 400,000 unit range. Expect the game to sell between 1.2 million units and 1.5 million units lifetime in the US.

StarCraft II (PS3, 2010) – 775,852 week one USA, 2,003,742 to date

Major Performers in the U.S. – Week Ending March 16

SimCity (2013) (PC) sales are expected to drop to around 80,000 units in its second week on sale.

Tomb Raider (2013) (X360) sales are expected to drop to around 75,000 units sold in its second week. The PlayStation 3 version is expected to drop to around 60,000 units. The PC version is expected to drop to around 12,000 units sold.

MLB 13: The Show (PS3) sales are expected to drop to around 40,000 units sold in its second week. The PlayStation Vita version is expected to drop to around 8,000 units sold.

Major League Baseball 2K13 (X360) sales are expected to drop to around 20,000 units in its second week on sale. The PlayStation 3 version is expected to drop to around 10,000 units sold.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (X360) sales are expected to drop to around 16,000 units sold in its second week on sale. The PlayStation 3 version is expected to drop to around 15,000 units sold.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate (3DS) sales are expected to drop to around 7,000 units sold in its second week on sale.

Overall hardware sales are expected to drop slightly week-on-week.

Other Hot Games – In Order of Release

Gears of War: Judgment (X360) added 50,009 pre-orders, down from 58,282 last week, for a total of 280,423. The game is 1,097,000 pre-orders behind Gears of War III. The game is two weeks away from launch in the USA, March 12, 2013.

Bioshock Infinite (X360) added 8,291 pre-orders, down from 9,362 last week, for a total of 342,762. Bioshock Infinite (PS3) added 3,257 pre-orders, down from 5,350 last week, for a total of 200,940. The game is three weeks away from launch in the USA, March 26, 2013.

Notable mentions: The Last of Us (PS3) added 6,551 pre-orders for a total of 198,435. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) added 8,276 pre-orders for a total of 173,789. Injustice: Gods Among Us (X360) added 4,723 pre-orders for a total of 69,221.

Requests: Pandora’s Tower (Wii) added 1,865 pre-orders for a total of 15,592. Monster Hunter Tri (3DS) added 2,161 pre-orders for a total of 13,844. Soul Sacrifice (PSV) added 1,535 pre-orders for a total of 11,317.

If your favorite game isn't in the top 40, leave a comment requesting which game you want to see and the most requested games will be added in next week's article!

The Top 40 can be seen below or click here to go to the USA pre-orders page.

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God of War Ascension (PS3) Expect first week sales in the USA at retail to be in the 500,000 to 600,000 unit range. Expect the game to sell between 1.6 million units and 2.0 million units lifetime in the US. God of War III (PS3, 2010) – 692,257 week one USA, 2,448,460 to date........ WRONG. According to NPD God of War III sold 1.1 million in its first 3 weeks in the US (Vgchartz's hugely under-tracked estimates are at 0.96m), which makes 750k-800k FW /// 200-250K 2nd week /// 100-150K 3rd week much more likely. Also the game has sold well over 3 million to date in the US to date (2.82m as of the end of May 2012 as confirmed by SONY and with the Omega + Saga Collections and new budget essentials edition the game has probably sold between 3.2-3.4m in the US).... When is God of War III going to be updated? ioi knows about this situation and said he doesn't have time to fix inaccurate data so who else will? ..... God of War: Ascension will be yet another massively under-tracked God of War game by Vgchartz according to your estimates. Expect first week sales in the USA at retail to be in the 600,000 to 700,000 unit range. Expect the game to sell between 2.4 million units and 2.8 million units lifetime in the US (a lot more believable, you'll see when NPD data is released). I wonder if God of War: Ascension will also be MASSIVELY under-tracked in Japan + Europe too like God of War III still is? Probably will be.

Seeing as its a hugely important game in the Vita library i wouldnt be shocked. MonHun isnt popular here and is competing with Nintendo 1st party. i think SoulSac may be Vita's highest selling game this year

I just finished my hard mode playthrough and while it's not my favorite in the series, the first and last boss battles are right up there with the bets of the series and holy crap the visuals are amazing. I can't believe SSM put that on PS3!